The full post starts here.<\/h4>\n
With arrival of Alessandro Michele, Gucci has become a Garden of mystery. Some interpretations are unnerving to me, I accept. Regardless, I love scrolling their Instagram feed full of mystical and historical references.<\/p>\n
This is my first try of Gucci and I\u2019ve chosen a widely known myth of Garden of Eden with \u201cfashionable\u201d touch of Ignasi Monreal.<\/p>\n The original version of this retouched artwork is visually somehow different from \u201cconventionally accepted\u201d image of Garden of Eden as it carries quite some touch of author\u2019s own visions. But the storyline is similar. We are talking about origins of universe and emergence of our first parents.<\/p>\n It is amusing to learn the fact that the first stories of Garden of Eden date to a much later date than the earthed bones of early hominids, Homo Habilis. I mean we talk about some 2 million years of difference. In other words, talking chronographically, when Adam was kicked out of that Walled Garden of Eternity and landed on mortal Earth, this place had already been populated with his fellow species long, long time ago. I am sure, he didn\u2019t feel lonely. By the way, I guess they already had some sort of clothing.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s see before being kicked out how was his life. Adam was in Garden of Delights enjoying his lazy and solitary yet immortal life. At the center of this Garden there were two trees \u2013 the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Immortality. There were four rivers in the garden, flowing from inexhaustible sources in four directions to keep the world refreshed. He was bored, so God created his counterpart, Eve out of his rib.<\/p>\n The treacherous serpent curled around the Tree of Knowledge whispered about the marvelous forbidden fruit of the Tree to the woman. Obviously she gave in, because, she herself is a symbol of temptation (in the eyes of Adam). She even convinced Adam. They tried the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and suddenly became aware of their differences and got ashamed. They got expelled from the Garden for eating that fruit. To make things worse, the God put two wrathful protectors in front of the gates so that they couldn\u2019t sneak in.<\/p>\n I am writing another post about this lower relatedness aspect of woman as homage to the Gucci\u2019s Great Hermaphrodite art work. Also a separate post about Snake. Stay tuned.<\/em><\/p>\n Although ridiculously absurd, this story runs along the texts of all of Abrahamic religions. Even uncontaminated cultures have their own versions with similar symbolism \u2013 precisely, the Tree and the Snake. How one can believe in this bizarre story and actually consider it as actual records of beginning of the universe while our facts are telling us a totally different story? Now one needs to ask this question \u2013 did really this place exist?<\/p>\n Answer from psychoanalysis is yes and no. No, because, there is no Paradise (walled enclosure) on an already well-explored Earth. Yes, because, it is our inner reality and this explains why such a weird absurdity has managed to gain so much fame. It is not a historical record of the origin of the universe. Yet it is how our psyche has experienced the process of evolution, namely, birth and separation of the consciousness. This story is manifestation of man\u2019s longing for pre-conscious sense of totality in symbolic language of unconscious. But it is not only about longing, it also talks about hope.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get into translation. It turns out that it was the Knowledge, the Awareness that put us behind the protected doors. It was time for us to get out of that Garden. So that treacherous Snake \u2013 the symbol of \u201cEternal Wisdom\u201d set up the \u201cplan\u201d.<\/p>\n At some point in evolution, we developed a capacity to judge everything in terms of good and bad which we perceive as fear and desire. In mythological language, our first parents \u201cate the fruit of knowledge\u201d and became self-aware \u2013 the characteristic feature of consciousness. So it was the nature of our reasoning that closed those doors to our face.<\/p>\n Self-awareness was not the only revelation. Then it downed upon them that there is a thing called death while they are lustful creatures with desire to live. So fairy tales abound with stories about search of elixir of life and man\u2019s desire to transcend mortality. Because, although we can\u2019t taste that bliss any more, we haven\u2019t lost the knowledge that there is a dimension of our nature that transcends mortality.<\/p>\n This differentiation of ourselves, development of consciousness has cost us to lose that \u201ceternal, timeless completeness\u201d \u2013 the period now babies experience from the moment of conception until early development of consciousness (does that explain why they are good at being happy?). Then for the rest of life try to experience it again.<\/p>\n Read the blog post “That wasn’t technically fire – what was it?<\/a><\/em>” to learn more about the nature of the conscious and the symbols that illustrate the pain of being consciously different.<\/em><\/p>\n Religions are our cry for such transcendence – our hope to transcend this carnal world of duality to experience that \u201ctimeless delightful state\u201d. Because it is when the \u201cself-aware\u201d consciousness will let go its petty \u201cme and mine\u201d game and will experience transcendence through self-sacrifice and submission to higher order. Enduring spirituality is where he hopes to experience these delights that are beyond duality of opposites \u2013 worries and desires, temptations and fears, light and dark.<\/p>\n But not all is lost. That walled eternal land still resides inside each of us, in the depth of our dark psyche, protected by cultural ogres, fire breathing dragons, many-headed scary creatures, which we come across in myth and fairy tales. They are personifications of our worldly attachments and survival instincts. Remember, the God put two frightful monsters in front of the doors? \u00a0We are talking of the same thing now. The way to return there is to defeat all these roaming instinctual forces and give back that \u201cfruit\u201d, which made us aware of ourselves and our surrounding. In other words, sacrifice our consciousness. Precisely, the way to immortality goes through Death, let it be physical death or symbolic death to our worldly attachments.<\/p>\n Only thru total renunciation of ego-oriented attachments the return is possible to that state of eternal bliss free of worries and temptations. But this time the experience is not that of a baby. It is that of a mature person in the form of immortality of spirit. Nothing carnal.<\/p>\n Related posts:<\/p>\n That wasn’t technically fire – what was it?<\/a> What’s in there for me: Something big – a solid answer for this much debated topic of humanity. It would be naive to take The myth of Creation as a historical record. In fact, the first stories of the\u00a0Garden of Eden date to a much later date than the earthed bones of early hominids, Homo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[53,39,49,14,26,15,52,29,48,50,51,17,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fashion_and_myths","8":"tag-alessandro-m","9":"tag-alessandro-michele","10":"tag-alta-moda","11":"tag-art","12":"tag-conscious","13":"tag-fashion","14":"tag-garden-of-earthly-delights","15":"tag-gucci","16":"tag-high-fashion","17":"tag-ignasi-monreal","18":"tag-paradise","19":"tag-psychoanalysis","20":"tag-unconscious","21":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"Rework](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fashionsymbols.com\/staging\/2950\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/373163.jpg?resize=1050%2C603&ssl=1\")
Our First Parents? Dressed in Gucci Style or Nude?<\/h4>\n
![\"Part](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fashionsymbols.com\/staging\/2950\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Bosch-garden-of-earthly-delights-original2.jpg?resize=2721%2C1042&ssl=1\")
Life in Garden of Delights – Not as Stylish as Gucci’s<\/h4>\n
Absurdity All the Way<\/h4>\n
Second Look at Symbols<\/h4>\n
The Cost of Being Consciously Different<\/h4>\n
Paradise… Where is it?<\/h4>\n
\nThe Secret Story of Symbols\u201d<\/a>
\nThe Unconscious – The Great Mother, The Conscious – Overconfident Kid<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"